Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claims Americans were healthier in the '50s and '60s, pointing to lower obesity and medication rates. However, Dr. Steven Woolf cites significant issues from that era, such as lack of safety measures in cars and high smoking rates. While chronic illnesses are more prevalent today, he and historian Natalia Mehlman Petrzela argue that overall life expectancy has improved, contradicting the romanticized views of the past. They highlight that major health issues were already significant then, which complicates Kennedy's narrative.
Americans today have much more chronic illness than they did when he was a kid, and there’s much more processed food today; rates of obesity are very high.
Two out of three deaths in the United States were caused by three chronic diseases: heart disease, cancer and stroke. So it's hardly the case that current health crises are entirely new.
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